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What Must Be Done after Touching a Dead Body

The Lord said:

11 If you touch a dead body, you will be unclean for seven days. 12 But if you wash with the water mixed with the cow's ashes on the third day and again on the seventh day, you will be clean and acceptable for worship. You must wash yourself on those days; if you don't, you will remain unclean. 13 Suppose you touch a dead body, but refuse to be made clean by washing with the water mixed with ashes. You will be guilty of making my sacred tent unclean and will no longer belong to the people of Israel.

14 If someone dies in a tent while you are there, you will be unclean for seven days. And anyone who later enters the tent will also be unclean. 15 Any open jar in the tent is unclean.

16 If you touch the body of someone who died or was killed, or if you touch a human bone or a grave, you will be unclean for seven days.

17-18 Before you can be made clean, someone who is clean must take some of the ashes from the burnt cow and stir them into a pot of spring water. That same person must dip a hyssop branch in the water and ashes, then sprinkle it on the tent and everything in it, including everyone who was inside. If you have touched a human bone, a grave, or a dead body, you must be sprinkled with that water. 19 If this is done on the third day and on the seventh day, you will be clean. Then after you take a bath and wash your clothes, you can worship that evening.

20 If you are unclean and refuse to be made clean by washing with the water mixed with ashes, you will be guilty of making my sacred tent unclean, and you will no longer belong to the people of Israel. 21 These laws will never change.

The man who sprinkled the water and the ashes on you when you were unclean must also wash his clothes. And whoever touches this water is unclean until evening. 22 When you are unclean, everything you touch becomes unclean, and anyone who touches you will be unclean until evening.

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11 “Whoever touches a human corpse(A) will be unclean for seven days.(B) 12 They must purify themselves with the water on the third day and on the seventh day;(C) then they will be clean. But if they do not purify themselves on the third and seventh days, they will not be clean.(D) 13 If they fail to purify themselves after touching a human corpse,(E) they defile the Lord’s tabernacle.(F) They must be cut off from Israel.(G) Because the water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on them, they are unclean;(H) their uncleanness remains on them.

14 “This is the law that applies when a person dies in a tent: Anyone who enters the tent and anyone who is in it will be unclean for seven days, 15 and every open container(I) without a lid fastened on it will be unclean.

16 “Anyone out in the open who touches someone who has been killed with a sword or someone who has died a natural death,(J) or anyone who touches a human bone(K) or a grave,(L) will be unclean for seven days.(M)

17 “For the unclean person, put some ashes(N) from the burned purification offering into a jar and pour fresh water(O) over them. 18 Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to take some hyssop,(P) dip it in the water and sprinkle(Q) the tent and all the furnishings and the people who were there. He must also sprinkle anyone who has touched a human bone or a grave(R) or anyone who has been killed or anyone who has died a natural death. 19 The man who is clean is to sprinkle(S) those who are unclean on the third and seventh days, and on the seventh day he is to purify them.(T) Those who are being cleansed must wash their clothes(U) and bathe with water, and that evening they will be clean. 20 But if those who are unclean do not purify themselves, they must be cut off from the community, because they have defiled(V) the sanctuary of the Lord.(W) The water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on them, and they are unclean.(X) 21 This is a lasting ordinance(Y) for them.

“The man who sprinkles the water of cleansing must also wash his clothes, and anyone who touches the water of cleansing will be unclean till evening. 22 Anything that an unclean(Z) person touches becomes unclean, and anyone who touches it becomes unclean till evening.”

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